![]() He was also a natural scientist and a student of anatomy, botany, morphology, and optics. However, on receiving his doctorate and practicing briefly as a lawyer, he set out on a spectacularly successful career as poet, dramatist, novelist, lyricist, artist, and critic of architecture, art, literature, and music. Because of his relevance to the ongoing construction of Europe, I'd like to nominate Goethe as the European of the millennium.īorn in 1749 in the free imperial city of Frankfurt am Main into an upper-middle-class family, Goethe studied law in Leipzig and Strasbourg. ![]() He also argued and fought against the expansion, centralization, and unification of government on grounds that these trends can only hinder prosperity and true cultural development. Less well known is that he was also a thorough-going classical liberal, arguing that free trade and free cultural exchange are the keys to authentic national welfare and peaceful international integration. Most Europeans know that he was the greatest of all German writers and poets and one of the giants of world literature. This year marks the 250th birthday of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |